Delay in challenged pipelline as Army reassesses

Popular Resistance - The US army corps of engineers has completed its review of the Dakota Access pipeline and is calling for “additional discussion and analysis”, further delaying completion of a project that has faced massive opposition from indigenous and environmental activists.

The statement comes amid heightened tensions between Native American activists and the surrounding community over the pipeline, which the Standing Rock Sioux tribe says could contaminate its water supply and destroy sacred sites....
The Dakota Access pipeline operator announced on election day that it had completed construction of the pipeline up to Lake Oahe – a reservoir that is part of the Missouri River – and was preparing to begin drilling under the river. But the company still lacks permission from the army corps of engineers to perform the drilling.

Assistant secretary of the army Jo-Ellen Darcy cited the history of “repeated dispossessions” of the Great Sioux Nation in a letter to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and the pipeline company. She wrote that the corps wanted to begin talks with the tribe about “potential conditions in an easement” that would allow the pipeline to cross the Missouri river but lessen the risks of a spill.

“While these discussions and analysis are ongoing, construction on or under Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe cannot occur because the Army has not made a final decision on whether to grant an easement,” the letter concludes. It is unclear how long the delay will last or whether it will survive under Trump, who is an investor in Energy Transfer Partners.

It is unclear how long the delay will last or whether it will survive under Trump, who is an investor in Energy Transfer Partners. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

The Standing Rock Sioux tribal chair, Dave Archambault II, said in a statement that he was “encouraged” by the army’s statement, though the delay was not “100 percent what the Tribe had hoped for”.

“Not all of our prayers were answered, but this time, they were heard,” he said.